5/30/11
Randy Ritskes, Mike Bond and Chuck Hossfeld Nab Oswego
Speedway Memorial Weekend Checkers
by Dan Johnson
Mike Bond, Chuck Hossfeld, and Randy Ritskes were the men standing on the top step of the
podium Saturday night at Oswego Speedway, as they picked up feature wins. Bond won the 35 lap
SBS Tony White Memorial, with Hossfeld taking top honors in the Richie Evans 75. Ritskes won
the nightcap, the Jim Shampine Memorial 75 for supermodifieds.
26 cars strong went to Donnie Forbes green flag to start the 2011 supermodified season at Oswego
Speedway, with Danny Connors and Tim Snyder setting the pace. Snyder grabbed the early lead,
with the field shuffling in behind looking for racing room.
Dave McKnight and Joey Payne went to the inside, with Jerry Curran, Ray Graham and Otto Sitterly
going to the high side of the speedway to clear traffic. Snyder, Connors, McKnight, Curran, Dave
Gruel, Sitterly, Pat Lavery, Graham, Payne and Ritskes were nose to tail early on.
McKnight got by Connors for second by lap 7, with Sitterly making his move wheeling by Gruel,
Curran and Connors in the next few laps, making the new lead trip 0, 08 and 7.
Lap 19 saw the front of the pack get reshuffled, as contact in turn three saw the McKnight and
Sitterly cars come together, with Connors catching part of the chain reaction. McKnight was able
to return, Sitterly went laps down, while Connors went pitside with handling issues.
The restart saw Snyder, Curran, Graham, Ritskes and Lavery fill out the tip five, with Graham
mashing the gas and picking off Curran for second on the get go. Ritskes followed him through
the hole. Graham charged up to leader Snyder, and made an attempt for the lead on the outside.
After the pass for the lead, the complexion of the race changed. Snyder’s 0 broke traction in turn
one, blocking the groove, with Lavery, Bond, Kody Graham, Payne, Stephen Gioia, Michael
Muldoon, all different directions in turn one. All eventually restarted after stops in the pit area.
Graham shot away on the restart, easily outdistancing Curran, Shawn Muldoon, Ritskes and
Payne. Ritskes tried to keep contact with the leader, as he wheeled by Muldoon on lap 33, to move
into third.
A Craig Rayvals foam shot in one bunched the field, on lap 35, with Ritskes taking full advantage,
as he cranked by Curran for second on the restart. Graham stopped watches at 17.33, as Ritskes
hung with the 90 car. McKnight was charging back from his earlier incident, as he was in a wheel-
to-wheel battle with Shawn Muldoon, Payne, and Snyder for fourth.
McKnight got by Payne on lap 48, and set sail for Muldoon. Lap 49, McKnight pulled alongside the
1 car on the back straightaway, and ended up spinning, resulting in a yellow flag and going to the
back once again.
With 25 laps to go, it was Graham, Ritskes, Curran, Muldoon, Payne and Snyder all still in
contention. Graham once again shot out ahead with Ritskes a close second. Payne and Snyder,
with Graham beginning his climb into slower traffic, shuffled Muldoon.
Lap 59, the leader came into the lapped cars of Rod Sauter and Michael Muldoon. Graham’s 90 got
a little too far in the outside groove going into one to lap the cars, and the back end came around,
with the 90 spinning in turn one, clipping the foam, and damaging the tail wing on the 90.
This handed the race lead to Ritskes with 16 laps to go. Ritskes took full advantage, and pulled
away easily as laps wound down. Curran could never muster a challenge, and Ritskes cruised on
for the 2.18 second win over Curran and Payne. Bond and Keith Gilliam rounded out the top five.
“I can’t believe it,” the elated Ritskes said after the win. “Every win here is emotional, this one is no
different. I am very fortunate. My family, I drive a great car, Johnny Richichi does a great job on
these cars. and I’m the lucky guy that gets to drive them. It’s just a great, great night.”
“We’ll take a second tonight”, runner up Curran said. “She was pushing bad early, and loose in
the end, but we’ll take it. We can roll it on the trailer, work on it, and bring it back next week.”
“It was almost an embarrassing third, but a third is a third,” said Payne. “We took the practice
session off, as my dad has some health issues and we stayed with him, so we used this as a test
session. It wasn’t pretty, but I have a great crew, and they’ll work on it this week and be back to
give it another shot next week.”
Team cars Mike Bruce and Robbie Pullen started the Tony White Memorial from row 1, with Bruce
grabbing the top spot early on. Mike Bond started third, and followed Bruce at the start, placing the
black 26 in second. Bond stayed there only shortly, as he made the power move in turn four, going
to the outside of the Bruce 22, and taking the lead as they raced along the grandstand straightaway.
Bond’s first lap in the lead was clocked at 19.62, as he quickly gave himself a four-car length gap
ahead of Bruce, Pullen, Tim Barbeau, jack Patrick and Andrew Schartner. The lead continued to
grow under green flag conditions, until a yellow flag for a Nate Sitterly spin in turn three on lap 12.
The red flag came out, as a lengthy clean up was needed as rear end grease from one of the cars
was spread three grooves wide in different areas of the track, necessitating a major clean up. After
the lengthy delay, the cars fell into single file on the slick track. Bond drove away to a comfortable
gap, only to have it taken away by minor caution flags for spins.
Pullen and Barbeau each passed Bruce on a lap 27 restart, showing the FFB cars of 26, 2, and 50 in
the top three. Neither Pullen nor Barbeau had anything for the defending track champion, as Bond
was the class of the field on opening night. A late race restart bunched the field one last time, but
Bond took off at the point, and wheeled the #26 to career win #20. Pullen and Barbeau finished
second and third, with Bruce and Schartner rounding out the top five.
“It was a good race for us, but it was a bit slick out there the second half of the race,” the winner
said after the victory. “ I have to thank my guys for all their work, the fans for coming out to watch
us, and the new owners for giving us a place to race.”
It was the first race of the year for the Race of Champions modified Tour, with the 75 lap Richie
Evans memorial on tap. By virtue of the redraw, Mike Leaty started outside pole, and put the pedal
down taking the lead when the race went green. Chuck Hossfeld, Wilbur Hebing, Erick Rudolph,
and Matt Hirschman all worked their way to the top five in the first 15 laps. Ironically, this was the
top five finishers in the Evans Memorial 75 in 2010.
A lap 18 double file restart, gave Hossfeld the opportunity he needed, as he got a jump on Leaty
when the green flag came out for the restart, and Hossfeld raced into turn one with the race lead.
Cautions bunched the field, with teams such as Jan Leaty and Kyle Ebersole coming in to change
tires, but Hossfeld was up to the task on each restart.
Fifth running Hirschman abruptly went pitside on a lap 35-caution period with a broken pan hard
bar, ending his top five run. Hebing worked his way to second place, never seriously able to
challenge Hossfeld for the lead. It was a four-car break away with Hossfeld, Hebing, Rudolph and
Mike Leaty wheeling around the speedway in 18.43 laps, as these four were the class of the field in
this 75-lap event.
Hossfeld built his lead to 1.41 second with less than five laps to go, when second running Hebing
lost control and spun the 1 car in turns three and four, bringing out the caution flag. This moved
Rudolph and Leaty up to Hossfeld, giving them a shot for the win. Hossfeld, remained calm, and
was not challenged on the restart, and drove on for his second consecutive Richie Evans Memorial
win at Oswego. Rudolph and Leaty finished second and third.
“It’s a lot of work to prepare a race car for this series, but I have a great crew and they gave me a
car that could win tonight,” the happy victor said on the podium. “It’s always a pleasure and an
honor to win a Richie Evans race, and he always has a special place for me, as he was the best.”
News and Notes…27 supermodifieds, 19 SBS cars, and 23 RoC modifieds were pitside. Jerry
Curran, Dave McKnight and Tim Snyder won supermodified heats, with Mike Bond, Rob Pullen,
and Jason Simmons taking SBS heats. Tommy Farrell, Chuck Hossfeld, and Terry Cheetam took
RoC heat races. It’s a regular night of racing this Saturday at Oswego Speedway, with a full set of
qualifiers, an SBS 30 lap feature and a supermodified 50-lap event to close the night. Pit gates
open at 3:30pm, spectator gates and practice go off at 4:30pm, with the first heat race at 6:30pm.
Randy Ritskes, Mike Bond and Chuck Hossfeld Nab Oswego
Speedway Memorial Weekend Checkers
by Dan Johnson
Mike Bond, Chuck Hossfeld, and Randy Ritskes were the men standing on the top step of the
podium Saturday night at Oswego Speedway, as they picked up feature wins. Bond won the 35 lap
SBS Tony White Memorial, with Hossfeld taking top honors in the Richie Evans 75. Ritskes won
the nightcap, the Jim Shampine Memorial 75 for supermodifieds.
26 cars strong went to Donnie Forbes green flag to start the 2011 supermodified season at Oswego
Speedway, with Danny Connors and Tim Snyder setting the pace. Snyder grabbed the early lead,
with the field shuffling in behind looking for racing room.
Dave McKnight and Joey Payne went to the inside, with Jerry Curran, Ray Graham and Otto Sitterly
going to the high side of the speedway to clear traffic. Snyder, Connors, McKnight, Curran, Dave
Gruel, Sitterly, Pat Lavery, Graham, Payne and Ritskes were nose to tail early on.
McKnight got by Connors for second by lap 7, with Sitterly making his move wheeling by Gruel,
Curran and Connors in the next few laps, making the new lead trip 0, 08 and 7.
Lap 19 saw the front of the pack get reshuffled, as contact in turn three saw the McKnight and
Sitterly cars come together, with Connors catching part of the chain reaction. McKnight was able
to return, Sitterly went laps down, while Connors went pitside with handling issues.
The restart saw Snyder, Curran, Graham, Ritskes and Lavery fill out the tip five, with Graham
mashing the gas and picking off Curran for second on the get go. Ritskes followed him through
the hole. Graham charged up to leader Snyder, and made an attempt for the lead on the outside.
After the pass for the lead, the complexion of the race changed. Snyder’s 0 broke traction in turn
one, blocking the groove, with Lavery, Bond, Kody Graham, Payne, Stephen Gioia, Michael
Muldoon, all different directions in turn one. All eventually restarted after stops in the pit area.
Graham shot away on the restart, easily outdistancing Curran, Shawn Muldoon, Ritskes and
Payne. Ritskes tried to keep contact with the leader, as he wheeled by Muldoon on lap 33, to move
into third.
A Craig Rayvals foam shot in one bunched the field, on lap 35, with Ritskes taking full advantage,
as he cranked by Curran for second on the restart. Graham stopped watches at 17.33, as Ritskes
hung with the 90 car. McKnight was charging back from his earlier incident, as he was in a wheel-
to-wheel battle with Shawn Muldoon, Payne, and Snyder for fourth.
McKnight got by Payne on lap 48, and set sail for Muldoon. Lap 49, McKnight pulled alongside the
1 car on the back straightaway, and ended up spinning, resulting in a yellow flag and going to the
back once again.
With 25 laps to go, it was Graham, Ritskes, Curran, Muldoon, Payne and Snyder all still in
contention. Graham once again shot out ahead with Ritskes a close second. Payne and Snyder,
with Graham beginning his climb into slower traffic, shuffled Muldoon.
Lap 59, the leader came into the lapped cars of Rod Sauter and Michael Muldoon. Graham’s 90 got
a little too far in the outside groove going into one to lap the cars, and the back end came around,
with the 90 spinning in turn one, clipping the foam, and damaging the tail wing on the 90.
This handed the race lead to Ritskes with 16 laps to go. Ritskes took full advantage, and pulled
away easily as laps wound down. Curran could never muster a challenge, and Ritskes cruised on
for the 2.18 second win over Curran and Payne. Bond and Keith Gilliam rounded out the top five.
“I can’t believe it,” the elated Ritskes said after the win. “Every win here is emotional, this one is no
different. I am very fortunate. My family, I drive a great car, Johnny Richichi does a great job on
these cars. and I’m the lucky guy that gets to drive them. It’s just a great, great night.”
“We’ll take a second tonight”, runner up Curran said. “She was pushing bad early, and loose in
the end, but we’ll take it. We can roll it on the trailer, work on it, and bring it back next week.”
“It was almost an embarrassing third, but a third is a third,” said Payne. “We took the practice
session off, as my dad has some health issues and we stayed with him, so we used this as a test
session. It wasn’t pretty, but I have a great crew, and they’ll work on it this week and be back to
give it another shot next week.”
Team cars Mike Bruce and Robbie Pullen started the Tony White Memorial from row 1, with Bruce
grabbing the top spot early on. Mike Bond started third, and followed Bruce at the start, placing the
black 26 in second. Bond stayed there only shortly, as he made the power move in turn four, going
to the outside of the Bruce 22, and taking the lead as they raced along the grandstand straightaway.
Bond’s first lap in the lead was clocked at 19.62, as he quickly gave himself a four-car length gap
ahead of Bruce, Pullen, Tim Barbeau, jack Patrick and Andrew Schartner. The lead continued to
grow under green flag conditions, until a yellow flag for a Nate Sitterly spin in turn three on lap 12.
The red flag came out, as a lengthy clean up was needed as rear end grease from one of the cars
was spread three grooves wide in different areas of the track, necessitating a major clean up. After
the lengthy delay, the cars fell into single file on the slick track. Bond drove away to a comfortable
gap, only to have it taken away by minor caution flags for spins.
Pullen and Barbeau each passed Bruce on a lap 27 restart, showing the FFB cars of 26, 2, and 50 in
the top three. Neither Pullen nor Barbeau had anything for the defending track champion, as Bond
was the class of the field on opening night. A late race restart bunched the field one last time, but
Bond took off at the point, and wheeled the #26 to career win #20. Pullen and Barbeau finished
second and third, with Bruce and Schartner rounding out the top five.
“It was a good race for us, but it was a bit slick out there the second half of the race,” the winner
said after the victory. “ I have to thank my guys for all their work, the fans for coming out to watch
us, and the new owners for giving us a place to race.”
It was the first race of the year for the Race of Champions modified Tour, with the 75 lap Richie
Evans memorial on tap. By virtue of the redraw, Mike Leaty started outside pole, and put the pedal
down taking the lead when the race went green. Chuck Hossfeld, Wilbur Hebing, Erick Rudolph,
and Matt Hirschman all worked their way to the top five in the first 15 laps. Ironically, this was the
top five finishers in the Evans Memorial 75 in 2010.
A lap 18 double file restart, gave Hossfeld the opportunity he needed, as he got a jump on Leaty
when the green flag came out for the restart, and Hossfeld raced into turn one with the race lead.
Cautions bunched the field, with teams such as Jan Leaty and Kyle Ebersole coming in to change
tires, but Hossfeld was up to the task on each restart.
Fifth running Hirschman abruptly went pitside on a lap 35-caution period with a broken pan hard
bar, ending his top five run. Hebing worked his way to second place, never seriously able to
challenge Hossfeld for the lead. It was a four-car break away with Hossfeld, Hebing, Rudolph and
Mike Leaty wheeling around the speedway in 18.43 laps, as these four were the class of the field in
this 75-lap event.
Hossfeld built his lead to 1.41 second with less than five laps to go, when second running Hebing
lost control and spun the 1 car in turns three and four, bringing out the caution flag. This moved
Rudolph and Leaty up to Hossfeld, giving them a shot for the win. Hossfeld, remained calm, and
was not challenged on the restart, and drove on for his second consecutive Richie Evans Memorial
win at Oswego. Rudolph and Leaty finished second and third.
“It’s a lot of work to prepare a race car for this series, but I have a great crew and they gave me a
car that could win tonight,” the happy victor said on the podium. “It’s always a pleasure and an
honor to win a Richie Evans race, and he always has a special place for me, as he was the best.”
News and Notes…27 supermodifieds, 19 SBS cars, and 23 RoC modifieds were pitside. Jerry
Curran, Dave McKnight and Tim Snyder won supermodified heats, with Mike Bond, Rob Pullen,
and Jason Simmons taking SBS heats. Tommy Farrell, Chuck Hossfeld, and Terry Cheetam took
RoC heat races. It’s a regular night of racing this Saturday at Oswego Speedway, with a full set of
qualifiers, an SBS 30 lap feature and a supermodified 50-lap event to close the night. Pit gates
open at 3:30pm, spectator gates and practice go off at 4:30pm, with the first heat race at 6:30pm.
